Archive for the ‘Suspense’ Category

I got into Michael Brandman’s second Jesse Stone novel on the heels of the first because I had a good time returning to Paradise. Unfortunately, I probably jumped back in too soon in some ways. Like the first book, this second novel goes down easily and smoothly. Brandman turns in prose that almost reads itself […]

Since Robert B. Parker died and left a slew of fans clamoring for more books about his iconic characters, a few writers have stepped into the breach to deliver more tales. Michael Brandman is a producer on the Jesse Stone films starring Tom Selleck, which I enjoy a lot. During these productions, Brandman got to […]

After the first Levon Cade book, I really hoped that Chuck Dixon wasn’t going to just walk away from the character. I felt like there was a lot more story to tell, and there is! Levon Cade is an ex-military guy who is violent and lethal, and fights for the underdog. He’s deeply attached to […]

The Second Life of Nick Mason is a strange and uneven book, but it’s one of those that once I started reading, I had to follow it through to the end to see what happened next. Which is the pull at the heart of every successful thriller. I’ve read and enjoyed Steve Hamilton’s Alex […]

I hadn’t read Reed Farrel Coleman before, although I was aware of his Moe Prager books and the fact that he is currently continuing Robert B. Parker’s Jesse Stone novels. However, I was given a copy of Where It Hurts, his first Gus Murphy novel, and I opened it up, feeling immediately as though I’d […]

I have a lot of memories of the late 1960s and 1970s, and most of those memories are tied to books I read in those years. I discovered Tarzan of the Apes, Doc Savage, the Shadow, and others. Those books became the building blocks of my own writing career. I learned a lot about plot […]

Allen Zadoff has dug into the YA suspense/spy market that has gone largely untouched. Since Anthony Horowitz stopped writing the Alex Rider novels (why, Anthony????), there exists a vacuum in this area that needs filling. Zadoff comes close with his Boy Nobody series, now called the Unknown Assassin series. This first book is a zinger […]

Wide Spot in the Road was the first Jack Laramie Drifter Detective novella I’ve read in the series. The premise is interesting, kind of a Jim Rockford (only a little tougher in the clinches) who lives in the back of his horse trailer and roves Texas looking for work. Jack Laramie is the grandson of […]

Lately, before the release of the new Tempe Brennan novel, author Kathy Reichs blows through a novella about her signature character that takes Tempe and the reader to a new place and usually a new corner of forensics. In this one, Tempe is on vacation (doesn’t last long because a body turns up—well, pieces of […]

At first glance, Jeffery Deaver’s new book, The Skin Collector, sounds like it has a lot in common with his breakout hit featuring forensic detective Lincoln Rhyme. Well, like all of Deaver’s creations, the book meets some of the reader’s expectations and spins others wildly in another direction. This latest novel in his long-running series […]